Moscow
hopes this year to strike an unprecedented deal with NATO,
which would allow Cold War foes to deploy combat units on
each other’s territories, the Itar-Tass news
agency quoted Russia’s defence chief as saying on Sunday.
Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov’s statement, made in
Oslo, contrasted sharply with previous remarks, in which he
said Russia might review its NATO-friendly military stance.
“The document will allow NATO units equipped with armour
onto our territory and our units equipped with armour onto
the territory of alliance countries,” he said,
adding that it would be part of Russia and NATO’s joint
fight against terrorism. In a further signal of seeking closer
ties with NATO, Defence Minister Ivanov said Russia
did not rule out joint navy patrols in the Mediterranean Sea
to intercept illegal migrants and unspecified “dangerous
cargos.” But Mr. Ivanov, quoted by Tass, said
joint patrols were only possible “with strict adherence
to international law and the framework of Russian legislation”
in a clear reference to Moscow’s opposition to U.S.
plans to intercept ships suspected of being used by “international
terrorists.” (Reuters 041636 GMT Apr 04)

Russia
and the NATO military alliance must work together to combat
new security threats facing the international community,
a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
“We can act only together,” Alexander Yakovenko
told Channel One’s Vremena program, according to Russian
news agencies. “In this case, NATO cannot do without
us and we cannot do without the alliance’s member nations.”
NATO’s expansion “doesn’t present a threat
to Russia,” Mr. Yakovenko was quoted as saying
on Vremena, echoing comments made repeatedly by President
Putin. In a press statement, Mr. YakovenkRussia was
planning to sign an agreement with France and possibly other
NATO nations that would allow them to move military cargos
over Russian territory to participate in the U.S.-led anti-terror
operation in Afghanistan.o also said Russia already
has such an agreement with Germany. (AP 041140 Apr 04)

President
Putin stressed Friday that Russia does not fear NATO enlargement,
but he warned that the military alliance’s eastward
march won’t improve international security.
He was also quoted saying: “We have never expressed
concern about the expansion of the European Union. Never,”
after a meeting at his residence outside Moscow with German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who arrived for a brief one-day
visit. According to the ITAR-Tass news agency, President
Putin suggested that Russia could eventually join the EU.
“Russia does not set the goal of joining the
European community in full format in the foreseeable future,”
the agency quoted him as saying. “We favour
a unified Europe, and in that sense, if sometime in the future
Brussels is our common capital, I would not protest.”
In an interview with Westdeutscher Rundfunk radio before departing
for Moscow, Mr. Schroeder said Germany and France “are
working to ensure that what we have decided on – a strategic
partnership between the EU and Russia – is implemented.”
(AP 022144 Apr 04)

IRAQ

The
Bush administration may have to consider extending its June
30 deadline for the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq or risk
seeing the country lapse into civil war, the head of the U.S.
Senate’s foreign relations panel said on Sunday in Washington.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar
and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Senator Biden, said
in separate interviews that more troops may be needed to stabilize
Iraq amid growing violence including deadly clashes in a Shi’ite
section of Baghdad that killed seven U.S. soldiers. A
President Bush spokesman said later that the White House stood
by the June 30 deadline and would keep U.S. troops in Iraq
until the country was “free and peaceful.”
“The United Nations has a vital role to play in Iraq’s
future. Many NATO countries are already participating in our
coalition, and we look forward to continuing discussions about
ways NATO might be able to help in the future,” said
the spokesman. (Reuters 042219 GMT Apr 04)

BALKANS

Kosovo’s
Serbian Orthodox leader and Germany’s UN ambassador
separately asked the Security Council to re-examine the UN
role in running the province after ethnic violence erupted
there last month. Bishop Artemije, head of the Serbian
Orthodox Church in Kosovo, said Friday that the recent violence
demonstrated that the current policy in the province is a
“complete failure.” German Ambassador
Pleuger said the violence showed that Kosovo had not yet become
a multi-ethnic, democratic society, which is what the United
Nations expects of it before the council decides its eventual
political status. Mr. Pleuger, who is the current
council president, told journalists Friday that the council
will discuss Kosovo on April 13. (AP 030122 Apr 04)

Bosnia’s
international peace overseer on Saturday punished the party
(SDS) founded by Bosnian Serb former leader Radovan Karadzic
over its suspected links with the indicted war crimes fugitive.
Mr. Ashdown, in comments on Republika Srpska Television on
Saturday, also criticised Serb authorities over events at
the Pale church. “If NATO has credible information
that a certain war criminal is on a certain location and that
he is surrounded by people who are ready to protect him, NATO
is required to investigate, prepare a plan of action and use
certain force,” he said. (Reuters 031553 GMT
Apr 04)